April 02
2009

Life After Galactica: Dollhouse.
Geekscape.net gives pros and cons on Dollhouse, recommending it for the long haul now that other Friday night, sci-fi offerings have ended. Contains some language and spoilers for the BSG finale.

For those interested, the review also includes a nice pic of a shirtless Tahmoh Penikett, listing it as a particular highlight. :)

Credit where credit is due: This writer does a very good job of pointing up the potential problems with the premise, etc while still having the intellectual discipline to admit that there is a lot he doesn't know yet about what will turn out to be true, especially about the purposes or morality of the dollhouse. The writer is clever and funny without going for the easy raw snark to prove said cleverness. This is an example of a writer who, even if he ultimately were to decide the show was a failure, I don't think us insane fanboys would be angry with because he had the intellectual honesty not to decide the show was by definition irredeemable the first time something ooky happened on the show that pushed his particular buttons.

That review doesn't even give full credit to the level of gray in Dollhouse. He says there's 20 Dollhouses in operation but our only source for that info is a pre-programmed message in Echo.

Maybe THAT is complete horse-hockey too. We don't know. We'd just seen them head-fake a former-ish employee with a sleeper agent. I wouldn't put it past them to do the same to an enemy. That message could have been DeWitt's way of distracting him and putting him on a path to be controlled. We get a scene where Topher leaves Echo alone long enough for someone to fiddle her programming, but I don't think there was anything moved to prove to us definitively that something was done. So perhaps that code was in all along - Topher compliments himself on the layers - or perhaps DeWitt was the one who put it in without Topher's knowledge, but still for "legitimate" Dollhouse reasons. She's shown a willingness to keep her employees in the dark about the truth before (re: Alpha).

I think it's foolish to assume that anything anyone tells anyone in the Dollhouse (or about it) should be accepted at face value. Unless we see it - and sometimes even when we do - it might be made up.

I don't know what JW's plan is, but Dollhouse has the potential to be as excellent a commentary on secrecy and spying as BSG was about insurgency and occupation during the time they were on New Caprica.

I thought the argument was valid too. I watch Dollhouse, and I like it well enough, but not crazy about it (yet). I couldn't quite shake the nagging 'what is it, what's wrong?' question in my head. I finally put it together... Buffy had the Scooby Gang, Firefly had the Crew, Angel had AI, Dollhouse has what? Nobody is connected, and it frustrates me. I realize the entire Dollhouse concept practically excludes the possibility, but I still feel that's what's keeping this show from being great.

I think it's foolish to assume that anything anyone tells anyone in the Dollhouse (or about it) should be accepted at face value. Unless we see it - and sometimes even when we do - it might be made up.

That's my standard operating procedure for every show and movie. It baffles me why any viewer would think otherwise.

That was probably the most even-handed review I've read yet. Although it would be nice to have had a mention of the well known fact that at least the first five eps were made of studio mandated compromise.
Joss's (expedient) politeness aside, it was obvious we were getting watered down network fare.